Introduction: Bearing Magnifcent Witness

This introduction addresses the exploding problem of the use of generative and assistive AI for the production of “scholarly” manuscripts and highlights the Journal ’s AI policy. This problem is brought into conversation with Pope Leo XIV’s first encyclical Magnifica Humanitas and the six articles comprising the July 2026 issue. Taken together these articles demonstrate the extraordinary beauty of God’s generativity is incarnated in the interpersonal encounters between those caught in the painful places of the world and those who accompany them. As AI promises to continue to consume humanity and the basic goods of human flourishing in so many different ways, these authors and the figures they highlight bear magnificent witness to what the abundance of God’s grace looks like when imago Dei meets imago Dei .